automatons gone wild from steampunk era

Friday, May 11, 2012

Getting back into some of the more unique aspects of turn of the century robots, IO9 had a unique series of videos reflecting the ingunity of builders and designers – though gone, their works live on! The first one which caught my eye was the “Smoking Monkey”, which… well just smokes very large cigarette-like item. Originally made by the Parisian firm of Roullet & Descamps in 1900, the description give the, um… description of the fellow enjoying his smoke, as demonstrated by his “glassy green eyes”…. interesting!

Another which caught my attention was the “Sausage Automaton” – basically pigs being made into sausage, if over simplistically. The video itself is a bit shaky at first, but once it stabilizes one can appreciate the bizarre-ness of this little work! For more videos of these little devices (including the Mechanical Opium Den, located at the San Francisco Musee Mechanique, I believe), please do follow this link into a tad of real life mechanical madness!…http://io9.com/5908916/10-ridiculously-unsettling-old+timey-robots